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OK so I know I say this a lot on this blog, especially on the topic of The Freemaker Adventures, but… THINGS ARE GETTING SO REAL RIGHT NOW OMYGOSH. I can only hope I can get all my thoughts out in a coherent way because I still haven’t processed all that went down in this one. Either way this ought to be an interesting post. Read on, Freemaker fam!

So I’ve told you guys before that I got Kordi in a TFA personality quiz and, even though I know we have things in common, I still felt like she was more of the character I’d like to be than the character I feel I am (which would probably be Rowan). But soon as she started rambling excitedly in front of the Rebellion’s big shots, I finally truly truly saw myself in her and exclaimed “OMG that is so me!” Talking really really fast, forgetting to breathe except in squees, realizing I said something that I feel came out sounding dumb even if it’s true, and then trying to overexplain myself which ends up sounding dumb all over again. I’ve literally done it all. All Star Wars characters have something I can relate to, but it’s really fun and really special when a character shares something this specific in common with you 🙂 Random way to start the blog, perhaps, but something I really needed to say before anything else.

Anyway, it’s so wonderful watching Kordi and Zander begin a new chapter with the Rebellion, in an even bigger way than when they first got here. I was so thrilled to hear Kordi addressed as “commander” as she joins the ranks of Rebel bossladies before her! And Zander is finally able to show Blue Squadron what he’s capable of as the Arrowhead makes quick work of an Imperial fleet. I’m even prouderer than I was at that medal ceremony! But for Rowan, his new title’s brought him back to square one — a place where he’s unsure of what he can do for the Alliance. Poor child. I don’t think Ro’s had an uneventful day since he first heeded the Kyber Saber’s call, so I could understand why it’d be a challenge to slow down. Wonder if he has any hobbies from before all of this. After all, he’s a master builder now, but he wasn’t always. Well if you recall back on the pilot Kordi commented on him having a great singing voice, so maybe he should take up karaoke! But that’s a moot point right now. I can see why Jedi are better off not craving adventure and excitement, because sometimes when you go off looking for such things, you get something far more dangerous than you bargained for…

On that note, I was thinking a lot today about the fact that Rowan is figuring out all this Jedi stuff on his own, that he has no master who could’ve reminded him not to seek adventure, not make rash decisions with no plan, and not let emotions cloud his judgement. Now true Luke had two masters teaching him and they couldn’t keep him from making a decision with mixed results, but you’ve gotta wonder a little. What would it be like for this masterless padawan to have had a real master the whole time? Or to even have had a master right now? Would it have made a difference? How would it have influenced him? Rowan is in such a unique position compared to other Jedi we’ve seen, learning much from his family and his wild adventures that I’m not sure a Jedi master could teach. As a whole I don’t think Ro has suffered being masterless, but as you watch him do stuff that would’ve gotten him kicked out of the Order back in the day, it’s easy to wonder if a wise voice (that wasn’t from a well-meaning-but-easily-destroyed battle droid) would have kept Rowan from attempting this perilous rescue. Again, it’s all a moot point now, but the what-ifs can be interesting to ponder on. I hope I got my point across, that was a lot all at once.

So Vader and M-OC make quite the dream team, don’t they? 😛 I’ve always loved what they did with The Empire Strikes Out with the concept of Sith-y sibling rivalry, and since the special’s not even close to canon now (RIP Maul), I’m quite happy they gave me something in a similar vein here that’s both funny and honestly believable. Yep the boys are Palpatine’s pride and joy!
Exceptthathehasnoproblemkillingthembutwhatever.

Y’know it’s interesting… I’ve been analyzing Star Wars thoroughly for six years now, and it still keeps keeping me guessing. Every time I think I know what’s going to happen next, I miss the mark like a stormtrooper in the dark! I really bought Maynar’s transmission at first. I think I was just so happy to get an opportunity to see her and Rowan on an exciting mission again, that I didn’t quite consider that maybe this wasn’t the direction the story was heading. As the episode went on, I started to think that this had something to do with Vader or M-OC. Once they landed, I began to wonder if maybe this was a trap in the vein of TCW’s The Lawless or SWR’s Rise Of The Old Masters. But for all the pieces I put together, I couldn’tve predicted in a million years that M-OC was the holo of Maynar all along. *Shudders* that reveal will never cease to terrify me. I’m glad this didn’t take the same kind of dark turn the aforementioned episodes did, but… it still took a really dark turn. You have Rowan alone up against M-OC in a dark, locked-down Imperial transport. It’s basically what nightmares are made of. Rowan puts up an amazing fight with the crafty hunter droid, but it’s Darth Vader who wins the battle. He dismembers Sidious’s creation in no time at all, he downs the boy in one swift move, and his dark master’s quest seems to be fulfilled at last. In case anybody forgot who the real most-terrifying force in the galaxy is… you won’t forget again. You can fix up a droid with all the weapons you want, but it’ll never be as efficient and deadly as Lord Vader. Such a cool, unexpected twist! BUT STILL SO TERRIFYING.
The very thing I’ve feared could happen this whole series has happened.
The last of the Forcebuilders is about to be at the mercy of the most evil, powerful man in the galaxy.

Anyone else still in shock? OK technically you might’ve already finished the season at this point but still! There are no words. Just can’t wait until I see what happens next on this amazing amazing show.

Over the course of this past season of Star Wars Rebels, I’ve faithfully written out my fangirly junk commentaries every episode. But even with all that, I find it’s nice to do a little recap and just spew out all my fangirly thoughts at once with no particular organization. So I’m just gonna sit here and blab about everything, from the episodes, to the events, to the characters, and all the incredible stuff that’s happened this season. And then I’ll stop talking about Rebels for a little while and shift gears to another area of the fandom. Fair deal? OK let’s go then!NOTE: Contains spoilers from the entire second season of Rebels, and a bunch of stuff from the first season too. So really don’t read this without having followed it as consistently as I have. Also seeing all the movies would help.

So wow. So much wow. I’ve said that a lot this season, but it’s entirely true to how it’s made me feel. This show gets amazinger and amazinger every minute, and it was already amazingest to start out! (Lol ignore my fangirly grammar logic) I’m literally not sure where to begin… so let’s start out talking about our wonderful family of friends, the Ghost crew, starting with our boy Ezra.
Ezra’s growth over the second season is truly amazing, mainly because an absolute ton of his personal growth happened in the first episode. When everyone else thinks they’re wasting their time helping high-and-mighty Maketh Tua, Ezra don’t bat an eyelash “We help people, it’s what we do!”. When faced with the gutwrenching ruins of Tarkintown, he still sees hope in the midst of it. Ez is absolutely a new man in Siege Of Lothal and that hopeful skip in his step makes all the difference. Yet the things we’ve always loved about him, like his sharp wit, street savviness, and natural confidence, have remained the same. And though he faced many many challenges and difficulties over the season, how he’s handled them and how he’s approached them have been incredibly mature. He even gave Hera some stellar drop-the-mic advice in Homecoming! Not that he hasn’t faced hurdles and decisions that weren’t really really hard. I mean, he finally found out what became of his parents, and that was by no means an easy truth to swallow. Something that still clearly hurts, as he came close to shedding some angry tears when telling Maul of their fate. But he continues to live out the Bridgers’ legacy with a fierce determination. And alongside his new family, that core value of hope and helping others his parents ingrained in him has been fanned from a spark to a flame. Of course, I’d be dense not to discuss his growth in the Force. Between Kanan’s teachings, Rex’s military-based tips and tricks, and some supplemental holocron footage of Anakin Skywalker, he’s absolutely been killin’ it out there! He’s taken on some pretty powerful and dangerous adversaries, from the inquisitors to Darth Vader himself, and still managed to come out alive. One of my favorite examples of this will always be when he used the Force to turn on his ‘saber while a stormtrooper had it holstered in Stealth Strike. What an awesome idea! Ezra’s Jedi abilities are amazing to watch because he has so many influences in his training. Not to mention his unique ability to connect! He’s not your average Jedi, and we wouldn’t have it any other way 😀 I’ve always called Ezra the “Force-sensitive everyman”, because he gives us an idea as to what it’d be like learning the Light Side without the formality of a proper temple upbringing. We can relate to him as he attempts to understand all the mysteries of the Force and the how-tos of being a Jedi. Now, though he started this season with a newfound optimism… the season ends with uncertainty on his part. He’s played with the Dark Side, questioned who was the better master, and now, hurt by the tragedy that happened on Malachor… well, as I said on that episode’s post, he’s got a lot to think about and a lot of decisions to make. It’ll be interesting to see what he’ll be doing by the time season 3 starts, and what knowledge he might gain from that Sith holcron…
Oh and then there’s Kanan. The only one of the crew who wasn’t all-in on the idea of a larger rebellion. It took him the entire season to finally admit that maaaaybe it wasn’t so bad. Thankfully, for some things, it didn’t take him nearly as long to figure out. His training Ezra really exploded this season; the things they accomplish when they use the Force, together or interchangeably, are truly incredible. Again, that mixture of real-world skill and Jedi prowess make for some really awesome stuff. Homecoming has one of my favorite examples of this as they make their dash to the bridge. Just… AHHH WOW!! That and the beginning of Shroud Of Darkness, too. OK pretty much all the time. They’ve become an in-sync, formidable duo, and we owe Kanan a lot of that. He’s become more confident in his role as master and Rebel, though like say, it took some time to get there. It’s hard to forget his “clone issues”, right? His difficulty with trusting them was understandable, considering all he’s been through over the years, but once he put aside that fear and frustration and learned to trust, it made for a world of difference both for him and for his relationship with Rex, too. I remember before the season started thinking that, with Ahsoka around, maybe there’d be a bit of a too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen situation going on, but ultimately that role would fall to the good Captain instead XD Stealth Strike is an incredible episode for many reasons, and the moment where Kanan says “I’m going to rescue my friend” is one of those reasons. That’s not the only character growth we see out of him, of course… let’s spend the rest of the day talking about what conspired in the Lothal Jedi Temple! For all he and Ezra had accomplished together, he still had doubts and fears concerning his apprentice’s future. But when he finally learned to be let go of what he feared to lose… HE DONE GOT KNIGHTED. Ahhh I got chills! Definitely one of his most defining moments. ‘Cause you know I hadn’t considered this until now, but yeah this was an example of how to handle attachment. I mean, you wanna freak someone out? Tell them their padawan will become an agent of evil! Kanan fights the guard with both his blue blade and a red blade, likely signifying the dark and the light in him as he wrestles with this fear. And when he finally drops both lightsabers and realizes all he can do is start Ezra down the right path… a very glorious thing happens. Also yeah WHOA THE GRAND INQUISITOR WAS A JEDI OAO Explains how he knew so much about Depa Bilaba’s fighting style. I guess. Maybe they were friends back in the day? Weird thought. But more on the inquisitors later, this is Kanan’s paragraph! This whole situation of Ezra’s uncertain future definitely comes back in to light on the finale, as he watches his padawan and an ex-darth being all chummy all of a sudden. Again, Ahsoka’s reminder “because you taught him” was all kinds of perfect timing. And wow when he faced Maul there… he couldn’t see, but yet… HE. COULD. SEE. I absolutely can’t wait to see how he furthers and fine-tunes his skills in this way, as well as how he might use that in training Ezra. I foresee him becoming the Daredevil of Jedi — whupping the Empire with the combination of his other four senses and the Force!
And wow we’ve really gotten to really know Hera over this season too. THE BOSS LADY HAS BECOME MORE BOSS! We’ve finally gotten to meet the rest of the Rebellion she had hiding behind the curtain for all of season one, and seen how she takes charge long before she became an official squad leader. Especially when putting up with Kanan’s “bleh larger rebellion” crud XD She’s still remained the heart/soul/team mom she’s always been, but we’ve also gotten to see more than just that side of her. We’ve seen her heart and passion for flight, and for helping others while doing it, we’ve seen a deep selflessness shine through as she allowed herself in the path of danger to save the rest of her squadron (not that we didn’t already know that she was capable of it, but we hadn’t actually seen her come out nearly killed because of it), we’ve seen her less-than-sweet side as she deals with her difficult dad’s ideas of rebelling, and we’ve seen her have a little trouble letting go herself as she watches her boys walk away to a place she can’t go. These ups and downs have only made us love her more as we see the human/sentient being side of her. With her leadership and her crew-family by her side, I have no doubt as to how far-reaching her influence will be for the Rebel Alliance, and the galaxy itself.
SWR is really good at not revealing too much but revealing just enough when it comes to backstories. This is definitely the case with Sabine. We find she’d had a stint as a bounty hunter and that she’s a rock-solid Viszla clan Mando through-and-through. Things have been rough for her, what with being betrayed by a close friend all that time ago and more recently nearly losing Hera. But she’s still come through and come back stronger. And ultimately, she’s gone right up against the Mando code in the choices she’s made. She forgives Ketsu without expecting anything in return. She chooses not to get revenge on Fenn Rau. Her line from The Protector Of Concord Dawn “I guess I was raised right”, pretty much encapsulates the entirety of her character growth in season 2. Sabine remains the cool, confident Mando we’ve known her to be, but her strong morals and the choices she makes ultimately make her even cooler 🙂
Like with Sabine, we don’t get all the backstory with Zeb. They give us keys to open future doors to learn more instead of giving us everything at once. This season’s had a lot of tides turn for Zeb. He’s overcome his own self-doubts as he pulled off a fantastic rescue in Always Two There Are, battled past regrets and hurt and found hope in Legend Of The Lasat, spent a day with his enemy and found out there was more than met the eye in The Honorable Ones… honestly he’s been through a lot and it’s amazing. We see a wounded, vulnerable side of him, as well as one that bleeds respect and honor, and yet he hasn’t lost that stormtrooper-bashing edge and flawless ability to punctuate a sentence with a smart comment. So much of what we thought we knew about him and the story surrounding him has been rewritten. Seeing him come through this season the way he has has made me love him even more. He is no longer alone, he lost who he thought to be a mortal nemesis, he protects his crew-family, he protects the innocent, he is both child, fool, and warrior… he is a true captain. Also on a weird note I had a dream a month or so ago that I was a Jedi-Rebel and I was going to join Kanan, Ezra, and Ahsoka on Malachor, so I gave Zeb a friendly goodbye hug… to which he pushed me away and was all “Um sorry not a hugger” XD XD
Then there’s Chopper, who naturally didn’t really change a bit XP He powered through that season mercilessly running into people, zapping his crewmembers, outright hitting them, and dropping droidspeak-snark every ten seconds, like he do. And we wouldn’t want him any other way. But he did make one exception to the rule, he did grow just the teeniest teeniest bit… he made a friend. Who’da thunk an old persnickety protocol and an attitude-laden astromech could become friends? Though they spend most of their time squabbling, you can’t watch Chopper stand by AP-5 in what appear to be his final moments and not feel the friendship feels in the room. So proud of that C1-10P 🙂 And it’s great learning his backstory too… combination grumpy cat and war hero! Funny I think he’s the only crewmember to get their entire backstory told. Wow. Though I do want to know how long it took for Hera to fix him up and when exactly she did, since he seems absent in A New Dawn… oh well. Another mystery for another day!
Obviously I needed to talk about Ahsoka. Her presence in this season has been an absolute dream come true and then some. She was not only a member of the growing Rebel Alliance, but was a true friend and hero! The way she fit in so perfectly with the Ghost crew, always helping them out when they needed her most, the way she easily could strike up a conversation with Ezra and Kanan, her incredible Jedi prowess when she fought the inquisitors, her ever-present hope and optimism, her courage when she laid it all down for her friends. It’s truly truly beyond amazing. I don’t know if we’ll ever see her in this time and place again, but her impact will always be there, and she will always be one of the biggest highlights of season two 🙂
And of course AHH REX!! We got to see a lot of amazing characters return this season… Hondo, Leia, Vader, Cham, Yoda, Maul, but reuniting with Rex and a couple of his fellow brothers was the first one I knew about, and the one that made me absolutely cry/squee with delight that day during Celebration last year. Still as sharp and fearless and a strong leader as ever. But what made it even a further joy to have him in the mini-Alliance was watching him teach Ezra in a grandfatherly way, seeing him and Kanan become an unlikely set of friends, witnessing his sweet reunion with Ahsoka all the way to their final goodbye… Rex has always been and continues to be a great, loyal soldier, but without a constant war to be fought, we have more time to see his heart and soul and it’s been too amazing. And I’m excited to see how his journey continues from here. Rex is living proof that no matter how dark the situation, good will ultimately triumph in the end. Rex was intended as just one small component of Sidious’s horrible plan, but he is so so very much more than that… he’s a true hero :3
Shifting gears, let’s talk a little about them ‘quisitors, Fifth and Sev. Yesss for this season the trouble done got doubled! And though they didn’t hold the high position their nefariously classy boss held, they were by no means any less of a threat to our heroes. They pretty much scared the midichlorians outta me on the regular with their strength, power, and unshakable confidence. I mean, if you need an example, look no further than the time they tore up a public shuttle and everyone on it to kidnap a Force-sensitive child. That’s ’bout bad as it gets man. But regardless of their actions, they still can’t help but be cool. With Fifth Bro so deadly serious and Seventh Sis so devious and crafty and flirty, they make a pretty aweaome team despite their differences. Le sigh they will be missed. They made for some delightfully dangerous foes, constantly keeping us guessing, and both freaking us out and majorly impressing us at the same time 😀
Also wow Kallus made some great strides, didn’t he? And I mean REALLY great strides. Like, planet-wide strides. At the start of the seaaon, it seemed working alongside Vader went to his head, and his jerkyness went up one-thousandthfold. Everywhere we turned, he waa dishing out some surefire sarc and finding the best new ways to make things difficult for our heroes. Agent K was at the top of his bad guy game, it seemed. Right up until one episode came along and blew our tiny minds, anyway. Give it about 22 minutes and my entire view of him was decimated and I found myself crying for him. He was hurt and talked a lot of talk. He went into things without asking why. He’s not really all that bad. WOW. I’m definitely excited to see what happens next in Kallus’s story. After all, if there are heroes both sides and evil is everywhere, I’d sure like to see a real hero on the Empire’s side 🙂
And then we owe Darth Vader a paragraph. *Is Force-choked for not doing it sooner* It probably won’t be too long a paragraph since he really doesn’t exhibit any character growth. But his role this season has been utterly terrifyingly fantastic. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth saying again: seeing Vader in his merciless, nightmarish prime has made me greater appreciate him as a villian. I love his redemption story so much I often look past the horrible things he’s done. I was squarely reminded of how far he’d fallen through basically every minute he was onscreen the entire season, especially in Siege and Twilight. Whether nearly in killing Ezra twice, burning Tarkintown, or giving his former padawan no mercy, he gave me all the chills all the time. But through it all, it’s a good reminder as to why his ultimate redemption is so powerful. The entire Ahsoka-Vader-Anakin story weaved throughout is a solid reminder as well. And still I be wondering… if Ahsoka is truly alive… how is he still alive? We may never truly know, but either way, his role this season has added much to the emotional side of the story as well as being a genuine threat to our heroes.
Gosh, there are honestly a ton of things worth talking about in Rebels season two, but due to my lack of time and likely your lack of attention span, I think I’ll be wrapping this up. We’ve seen so much this season, seeing the mini-aliance come to be and expanding across the galaxy, and seeing this beautiful cast of characters grow and thrive. Every episode went above and beyond what I ever could’ve imagined, and continue to inspire me and encourage me and make me laugh and cry with every viewing, and really just about every day. I can only predict more excitement and more feels and more joy from here.
And since I’ve been terrible and haven’t recapped as thoroughly as I should’ve, I’ve compiled links to all the original Rebel Transmissions from the past season, so you can dig even deeper if you haven’t already. And don’t worry… anything I haven’t covered here will eventually come up, I promise ya 😀

Don’t ask me why, but summertime and reading go hand-in-hand. Well, anytime of year and reading go hand-in-hand really, but here at Padawanline it’s special because we do Star Wars Summer Reads every year! They’re like my normal Closer Looks on TCW and Rebels episodes, just with some of my favorite SW books! And this post is especially exciting because this is the first new SW book I’ve read since… I guess since the third Secret Missions installment! And that was in 2012! So yes today we’re diving back into the incredibly amazing Jude Watson’s Jedi Quest series with its second chapter (or third counting the prior-to-the-series first book) The Trail Of The Jedi! If you’ve never read Miss Watson’s stuff you really ought to. Vivid descriptions, exciting, intriguing storylines, the incredible way she gets into the heads of Anakin and Obi-Wan… seriously one of my favorite series ever. It’s canon as far as I’m concerned! If you want to read my Closer Looks on the first two books The Path To Truth and The Way Of The Apprentice feel free, though ye be warned they are trainwrecks since they were done back in 2013 XP Anyway, let’s see what we can find on The Trail Of The Jedi! Whoops I did it again…NOTE: Contains spoilers from Episode I, Episode II, Episode VI, Rebels episodes Rise Of The Old Masters and Fire Across The Galaxy, The Path To Truth, and The Trail Of The Jedi

We find ourselves rejoining the young master and padawan team of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker as they prepare to land on the gorgeous planet of Ragoon-6 for a Jedi bonding trip. And pretty much as soon as you know it’s for a bonding trip with these guys you know this thing’s gonna explode with feels… but then again, all in the series do that 🙂 Ragoon-6 sounds like a planet deserved to be titled “the jewel of the galaxy”… nothin’ but miles and miles of untamed, unspoiled beauty under a blue-violet sky! Miss Watson has an amazing talent for making some epic descriptions, bringing to life whatever the world, whoever the person, and the feeling of the Force itself, and everything about this shimmering world makes me want to go there right now! The goal of this trip will be for Anakin and Obi-Wan to track Jedi teacher Wren Honoran through the planet’s forests and jungles. Ah yes Wren is one awesome dude. He’s a government teacher at the Temple and the not-so-easy-to-catch prey on these sorts of things. He takes his teaching pretty seriously, but he knows how to have fun… especially when schooling overconfident padawans, such as Anakin, who has full intent to find Master Honoran before the day’s end. For now, Anakin and Obi-Wan are giving Wren a head start before they start the “hunt”. And they have a bit of a picnic in a flowery meadow in the meantime. Seriously anyone else need to go here now?! Obi-Wan tells Anakin about the last of the two times he and Qui-Gon had been here. Which sounded like fun up until it was cut short when a good friend of Qui-Gon’s was in danger, something Obi-Wan doesn’t divulge too much to his padawan. In the awkward silence that follows, Anakin starts to wonder why exactly Obi-Wan had felt the need to do this bonding exercise. And he starts to wonder if maybe that need was to build a bond between them that wasn’t just because of a desire to fulfill a master’s dying wish, because perhaps Obi-Wan wasn’t feeling the same connection to him the way he and his master had. Aww don’t think that Anakin! You guys are bestest friends! OK not quite yet but give or take 5 years or so!
But as it is, Obi-Wan’s not looking to compare relationships, if he’s got any doubts, it’s that he might not be good enough for an energetic, brilliant, wants-to-get-things-done student like young Skywalker. Can’t help but notice some similarities here with Rise Of The Old Masters. After all was said and done, Kanan and Ezra talked through it, but Obi-Wan’s not sure what he and Anakin should talk through or not. Looking back, Qui-Gon chose sometimes to answer Obi-Wan’s questions and sometimes not to, sometimes to tell him what he was thinking and sometimes not to. Certainly Master Jinn didn’t tell him exactly why they had to leave that last bonding trip so fast. That reason was a girl named Tahl, a smart, funny, kindhearted Jedi. And he certainly didn’t mention that HE LOVED HER. That didn’t reveal itself until her last breathing moments when that mission… sniff… failed. Mergosh that is so sad… but even so, I absolutely am obsessed with QuiTahl now and absolutely can’t wait to learn more about her. Sorry, point is, even though Qui-Gon didn’t always tell Obi-Wan everything and that bothered the padawan sometimes, it did nothing to hurt their bond, and Obi-Wan so badly wants this strength of relationship with his padawan now. Especially remembering something Qui-Gon had said on that last bonding trip… “It seems there is always time when you are young, but you cannot hold a moment, padawan. It runs out like water in your fist. You must seize it when you can, even as it falls away” (hey would you look at that a Qui-Gon Jinn quote! Happy now Google searchers? 😛 Though in all seriousness SUCH FEELS). But in keeping in the here and now, it soon is time for the hunt to begin. Aw dude I’m so sorry my mind’s all over the place I’m just drowning in feels over here!
So things go pretty well for a while as Anakin does a fabulous job of finding clues leading in Wren’s direction, but the tracking gets trickier and trickier as they go along. And there’s a problem when it leads Anakin right into a cave full of ferocious furry malia who were right in the middle of a nap. Perhaps the planet’s not as perfect as it looks from a distance. But then again, what planet is? It takes quite a bit of lightsaber-swinging but master and padawan manage to get out of that soup with their lives. Anakin feels dumb for running in there, but both he and Obi-Wan aren’t quite sure why Wren would leave a clue that could be so easily misread. Even so, they continue onward and are led this time to a hidden cavern. It’s an absolutely gorgy cavern but (there’s always a “but” it seems) it has its fair share of flash floods. As you can imagine, Anakin really really feels dumb about misreading a second time, and the fact that Obi-Wan makes no comment on his mistake doesn’t make him feel much better. It’s as there going along from there that Anakin finally bluntly states “you never tell me anything” to which Obi-Wan diverts from that and corrects him for throwing around absolutes. Obi-Wan felt bad for it and knows it hurt Anakin’s feelings, but he still wasn’t sure what to tell him or not, especially as he further considers foul play in this game. Anakin’s convinced now that Obi-Wan’s not interested in trying to achieve the same level of communication he had with Qui-Gon with him. Aw man all you wanna do right now is step in and get them to talk all this over, but of course we can’t do that, we just have to let the story tell itself and our characters work it out on their own. But of course neither of them are going to talk about this right now, they’re just going to continue the hunt. And it’s there that they run into A GIRL WITH A BLASTER! Er… a hydrospanner. So maybe the all-caps freakout wasn’t necessary? Meet Floria, poor kid got separated from her friends on a survival camping trip and believes them to have been killed in their ship’s explosion. Naturally, Anakin and Obi-Wan are willing to help her out, but they’re both aware now that something is up on this planet. Before they know it, there’s a bounty hunter aiming a stokli spray stick at ’em. And that’s a bad thing because it’s basically temporary paralysis in a can. Anakin distracts the hunter while Obi-Wan sneaks up on him and they pretty much win. They even, though accidentally, hit said bounty hunter with his own weapon! Obi-Wan and Anakin: 1, Tursha bounty hunter: 0 (unless perhaps we’re counting that he’d likely left those clues from earlier and that would make the score 2-1 in his favor, unless you count that Obi-Wan and Anakin survived both and that would make it 3-0 in their favor… oh you know what this is getting ridiculous never mind). Floria fears that this hunter was responsible for whatever happened to her comrades, and Anakin is quick to comfort her, not terribly happy with Obi-Wan’s seemingly indifferent attitude. But Obi-Wan’s just trying to piece this puzzle together between the bounty hunter and a bunch of kids. Plus, Wren might be in serious trouble. Anakin and Obi-Wan butt heads over the matter of helping Wren and helping Floria, but ultimately they come to an understanding, at least for a bit. They decided to head back to their ship and try contacting Wren on their comlinks, but again things go south and suddenly there’s another bounty hunter firing at them! Sooo much fun, right? But there’re worse problems — Obi-Wan finds a bomb aboard. So that went about as well as you’d figure it would. And in the midst of the explosion’s aftermath, a new problem presents itself. Well, the other bounty hunter is Floria’s brother Dane… and that makes Floria — you guessed it — a bounty hunter, too. I’ll be honest, I really did not see this coming. I really bought into Floria’s innocent act! Some days I see it coming and some days I don’t. Though the kids’ story is kinda sad even still… they lost their family and found themselves doing whatever they could to survive, including taking up bounty hunting. Dane and Floria were players in a Jedi-hunting game set by a fellow named Granta Omega. The two bickering bounty-hunting siblings weren’t interested in hurting anybody, just getting the ginormous reward for capturing the master and padawan. But now that some other hunter brought in a bomb, the game just got a bit more dangerous. Yeahh I think Anakin and Obi-Wan are gonna need a vacation after what was supposed to be a fun bonding trip. Whoever this Granta Omega guy is he seriously ought to have more to do than send hunters after off-duty Jedi! Obi-Wan decides to have Dane and Floria come along for the ride as they search for Wren and the hunter who must have him. And the “ride” includes such things as maneuvering through a field of thorny flowers, defeating a second bounty hunter, climbing mountains, following clues (We now know the Jedi Temple has muffins. It would be a sad galaxy indeed if they didn’t have sweets of some kind, so yay to that! 😀 ), and quite a few holograms of Wren. Completely normal, right? Oh right that thing with the Wren holograms… that’s a problem, isn’t it? It slows ’em down but not for long because the Force. But it’s still not that easy because that bounty hunter was still using Master Honoran as bait and this guy knows his way around the trees in this neck of the woods and he’s armed with plenty of poison darts. Thankfully, a well-aimed surprise attack and the aid of some angry giant birds comes in handy. Wren’s alive, though not in the greatest shape, so Obi-Wan and Anakin decide it’s time to borrow a ride and head for home. But Teleq’s ship isn’t of much use since Dane disabled it in case the hunter made it out of the fight and the Jedi didn’t. So it’s time for another hike to find the third hunter’s ride. Floria is not into all this walking… I getcha there, girl. Along their way, Obi-Wan and Anakin have a moment of understanding and honesty as young Skywalker tries to figure out why his Force-sensing has been off today. It’s all about experience and patience, my friend. But things take a turn for the darker when they find the Tursha hunter from earlier has been poisoned, and the killer left no trace.
Wait… where was I? Sorry I just watched this cool video about Ahsoka on StarWars.com and I totally got off track. *Hit by brick* SORRY SORRY I’LL GET BACK TO BLOGGING ON THE BOOK! SHEESH EXCUUUSE ME FOR LOVING OF ALL THINGS STAR WARS! So anyway, Obi-Wan decides it’s time to play this game their way and gets Dane to call the great Omega himself and let him know they captured the Jedi, or so it will seem. On their way up the mountain to meet the big boss, our heroes run into the third bounty hunter, Hunti Pereg. Dude’s been stuck up here since he got his legs paralyzed by a poison dart, so he poses no threat other than freaking us out with his scarred face. In fact, he comes off pretty decent. So the Jedi and the young hunters just hang around for a while waiting for Granta Omega to meet them. After a while, it seems he’s not coming. But what does come is — of course — a few thermal detonators and a few attack droids. Somehow Jedi can’t go anywhere without a few of those on their tails! It’s not long after that before the mysterious armored bounty hunter shows his face. A battle on the snowy mountainside! Exciting! Well, it might be exciting but I don’t think it’s fun for the Jedi fighting it. Their best move is to make a dash for a thermal pool that could overload the hunter’s detonators. It’s not easy getting there, but they do get there. Obi-Wan gives the hunter a chance to escape, a chance to avoid a fiery death, but the hunter refuses, claiming to know something about a very powerful boss, a pyramid, and the fact that “there are things far more frightening than death”. Much ominous. Anakin doesn’t get why Obi-Wan tried to help the guy. His master explains that Qui-Gon’s greatest enemy Xanatos chose to die the same way, and even then, Qui-Gon had mourned him. Of course Obi-Wan doesn’t mention the fact that Xanatos was Qui-Gon’s former padawan who went to the dark side. But it’s true, from, you know, “a certain point of view”. Anakin still doesn’t really grasp it, but he adds it to an apparently long list of things to meditate on back in the Temple. I’m totally sure he’ll remember to do so… totally! /sarc/ Sorry that wasn’t fair I know forgive me. But the fact remains that any guy you wouldn’t want to face after failing must be some nasty, powerful guy. But either way, they now have a ride home. Anakin happens upon something interesting, however… the ship belongs to Hunti Pereg, not the guy they fought. Soon it becomes clear to Obi-Wan that that paralyzed hunter guy was Omega. So yeah definitely not “pretty decent”. Somehow that guy knew their whole ruse to begin with! And Anakin recalls he got no sense of darksidery or living Force from him, what Obi-Wan describes as a void, a way for someone with serious power to trick a Jedi. So yeah safe to say that Granta Omega is terrifying. And he just got more terrifying as Obi-Wan finds Omega left something for them… a Sith artifact, shaped like a pyramid, that happens to holoproject unspeakable, horrifying things. He really doesn’t want to tell Anakin about it at first, afraid for how he would react to it, but he chooses to let Anakin in on it, finally coming to his own realization that he is not his master, and he needs to make his own decisions. YUS they’re finally starting to figure this out! Obviously, Omega don’t play… this guy, though not a Sith, is most definitely a threat.
Back on Coruscant, things get wrapped up pretty quickly, they get Wren some professional medical help, the hand the pyramid over to the Jedi Council, and Dane and Floria are heading off to find a new start in the foster system… or maybe not… probably not, let’s be honest these are two slippery kids, nice as they are 😛 Anakin really wanted to go after Omega as soon as they’d found the artifact and had been pretty bummed when Obi-Wan decided against it. But it doesn’t mean Obi-Wan’s given up, no sir. Because they’re going to grab some info at a familiar eatery. Didi and Astri have since moved on, now guess whose place it is? Dexter Jettster! Yay I love getting to see the progression of things that eventually lead us to Episode II! Obi-Wan and Dex aren’t yet on a hugging-level of friendship, or even perhaps what you could call a friendship, but the big guy still has no problem keeping an eye out for info on this dark dude, and getting them some juma juice 🙂 Obi-Wan finally gives Anakin an official apology for not telling him stuff, explaining that he’d felt similarly as a padawan. He let him know that Anakin had helped him understand that he just needed be the best master he could be instead of trying to be Qui-Gon. And Anakin finally came to be at peace with his concerns with their relationship, whether he and Obi-Wan would have the same bond as he and Qui-Gon had had didn’t matter, what mattered is that he would be the best padawan he could be, and the bond would follow. And after all, they would become quite the dynamic duo in the end 🙂 Awwz! Love happy endings!
Oh right… but in the shadows of the diner, a figure happens to be watching. That figure is Omega. And he means business. Much ominous, indeed.
And so it’s done after nearly five straight hours of work! But I think it turned out pretty well in the end, and I definitely cannot WAIT to continue this series, as well as all of Jude Watson’s incredible SW tales, and all the many SW books I want to read, period! Ahhh I love this series so muchhhh… uh sorry anyway, look forward to reading along with you next week!

So today I’m gonna do something a bit different. Basically I’m gonna sit and ramble on how much I love Star Wars Rebels! OK maybe not entirely… because that could take a long while and we only have, like, six or seven months until the next season! But yeah… this show has become such a part of my life, like everything Star Wars does, and I just wanna pour out my heart on how much this show’s meant to me, and go back and look at this season as a whole, and how incredibly amazing it all is. I know this probably isn’t what you would naturally be looking to read, but hey, what’s a blog if not someone talking about something important to them? So fangirl or fanboy along with me why dontcha? 🙂NOTE: Contains spoilers from basically the entire first season of Rebels… so don’t read this if you’ve missed a single episode.

14 seems like a small number, doesn’t it? But Rebels has made it a number bigger than you could ever imagine. I can say this because every time I watch an episode, older or newer, I can’t help but take notice as to how the characters have grown, how their relationships have grown, how their world has expanded. A week before the show started, I transformed a piece of Rebels promo art into a wallpaper. I couldn’t wait to meet these characters, and now whenever I look at that wallpaper, it sorta hits me that I have not only met these characters, but that I know them. I don’t know every little detail about their lives and every chapter in their stories, but I absolutely reel when I realize just how much I know about them even so. When I look at these characters, looking all cool and determined and ready to fight, I’m reminded of what they’ve been through. I’m reminded of Ezra’s battle with himself, Kanan’s false guilt, Sabine’s desire to have all the answers, Zeb’s losses. And even not knowing all of Hera’s story, there are plenty of times where we know she has faced plenty of trials of her own. At the same time, I’m reminded of how each of them moved on or won that battle in some way. I get all teary when I see Ezra face The Inquisitor and say “I’m not afraid…”, just as I do when I see Kanan stand tall and say “I have nothing left to fear”. I’m hugely encouraged every time I watch Sabine willing to trust even without all the answers. I keep hoping we’ll see Zeb come to some sort of peace regarding the tragedy the befell Lasan. And I about die “aww”-ing when Hera encourages her comrades at every turn, putting their needs often before her own. Maybe that all sounds a bit crazy, but to me, it’s just amazing realizing how, after 14 episodes, I feel like I’ve known the Ghost crew my whole life. Now to me they are as core to the SW galaxy as the Skywalkers themselves!
Every chapter reveals something, furthers something, expands on something. No episode airs without some sort of overall effect to the series at large. This can clearly be seen in Droids In Distress, as the droids’ seemingly average owner is actually playing his own part in the growing rebellion. Who’da thunk it, right?! And it goes even farther beyond that! So let’s take a second and talk about the episodes, and how each adventure affected the story as a whole.
I still remember the day I first saw Spark Of Rebellion, just how absolutely huge that felt! How I laughed, how I cried, and how it effortlessly snuck its way into my heart, as if I’d been watching it forever! And now when I watch it, I feel this sense of awe as to how much has changed over this season. I actually watched Spark Of Rebellion after watching Fire Across The Galaxy last week. Definitely a cool experience, seeing them from that first rescue to their most recent one 🙂 It’s amazing seeing how they’ve bonded since then as well as how Ezra’s grown up. I mean, we now know a lot more about Ezra’s past than we did on the pilot. He grew up with such incredible parents, but eight years without them and he’s sorta gone against their message of helping others and standing up for those who can’t. Of course I’m not criticizing him, it would be easy to become jaded if I were in his shoes. And of course, he probably connected losing his parents to the good things they did, so he likely wanted to get away from that as far as possible. While I know I probably overuse the Aladdin connection, he really is a diamond in the rough at this juncture, he just doesn’t know it yet. And man oh man… I get all sorts of feely when Ezra watches as Zeb and Sabine give out food to the Tarkintown residents… how he’s really starting to figure it out, how it’s starting to reopen his eyes to why exactly his folks did what they did. And seriously, one of potentially my most favorite moments ever in the show has to be in Path Of The Jedi when he tells Yoda that helping others makes him “feel alive“… just… wow. So much wow. To see him take that leap from looking out for number one to finding joy in giving back just blows my mind every time. It’s hard not to cheer every time I watch Spark Of Rebellion and see Ezra slowly making the right choice in things, and even going out to help when the odds are all stacked against him. And despite all the craziness that conspires, at the end of it all, the crew’s doesn’t seem to want to say goodbye to this thieving street kid. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ezra makes the right choice at the end when he makes the decision to join the Ghost family. Could there have been a better first chapter for this story? I think not 🙂
Then there’s Droids In Distress again. Beyond just Bail Organa’s connections that none of us had a clue about, this episode has a lot of interesting ties to the rest of the season. I love, of course, learning more about Zeb and his story. As I said on my Transmission on the episode, it really opened my eyes to what a great guy Zeb is, and made me respect and love him even more than I already did. In the days before Rebels debuted, Zeb was kind of an enigma, and seemingly kind of hard to define through just the character intro video alone. I never doubted he’d be an awesome character and that I’d love him, but I had no idea just how awesome he would be and how much I would love him. So yeah this episode went beyond just the concept of the Rebels running into Threepio and Artoo, it gave me a full-on case of the feels and put me on the edge of my seat. And of course, we get to see Ezra’s first really big show of Force as he awesomely defends his comrade, even though he has no idea how he did it. Along with another interesting tie, as we now know Sabine really was an Imperial Academy student. Whether she really was a level five or not I don’t know… pshh she’s so beyond grades. On a scale from one to ten she’s a 37! Watching this episode again recently definitely wet my appetite to learn more about Zeb and Sabine in the season to come. And made me keep crossing my fingers that a character from the Droids series might walk in one day…
Speaking of Zeb, then there’s Fighter Flight! It was pretty cool of Ezra to save Zeb’s life and stuff… up until he started holding it over his head. We got another glimpse at Ezra’s past through the awesome Mr. Sumar, which opened up a whole chapter on his family we didn’t know about. The whole overall story with Ezra and Zeb is an absolute delight, further expanding on the Ghost family’s awesome dynamic. And of course, that infamous TIE… I never would’ve seen coming exactly how that Fighter would end up being used in the end! And an infamous painting on the wall will always remind us of such events. You could say Chopper is the real hero in this because if he hadn’t gotten Zeb and Ezra squabbling they wouldn’t have ended up in the situation that led them to the TIE in the first place and if they hadn’t had that TIE later on Kanan might be a dead man right now. Well, this might not be entirely the case, but yeah no one can deny Chopper the title of “Rebel Hero”… even when he does throw dishes at you, hits you with electricity, removes the screws from your bunk, and laughs at you just ’cause he wants to 😀
Then it got real on Rise Of The Old Masters. This episode really nailed me in the feels. I guess after the mostly lightheartedness of Fighter Flight I had no clue just how much it would blow my mind. But hello The Inquisitor’s in it! And man… Kanan and Ezra’s relationship is so great… you feel for them both in their frustrations this episode as Kanan feels inadequate as a teacher for Ezra, and Ezra, who feels like Kanan’s giving up on him. But after being led into a trap (that only now we realize was totally thanks to Gall Trayvis), nearly dying at the hands of The ‘Quiz, and taking on a good chunk of the Empire, they both are willing to do — not just try. I love how much their relationship grew in this one, and you gotta love Kanan for not being perfect, for being real, for being honest, for being extremely relatable to both Ezra and the rest of us. It just makes their father-son-esque bond all the awesomer. And The Inquisitor’s quite epic in his first flesh-and-blood appearance, too… I always knew he was an intense baddie, but I had no idea he was so classily calculating, and that made him all the cooler! Yeahhh I’m gonna miss him chasing down the Rebels like he do. Most defs. And his epic lightsaber. But eh well I’d miss Kanan a lot more so I won’t miss ‘Quizzy that much… but I’m getting ahead of myself.
And then there’s Breaking Ranks! Ezra’s inside job and the first time we get to meet Zare Leonis! It’s insanely cool getting to dig deeper into the Empire and how it does what it does, like training up young ‘troopers. And yeah Zare is so stinkin’ cool… and the fact he’s got his own book series going on makes him all the cooler! But yeah, it’s nice to know that Ezra’s not the only “rebel” in these ranks. Even when you’ve got crazy cadets who think the Empire hung the moon (pfffff see what I did there?? XD ). There’s so much I can’t wait to dig into further in Zare’s series, but until then, I’m just happy to enjoy this adventure as it is, as Ezra’s made an unexpected friend while undercover and the Imperials get whupped by friendship and teamwork! (Sorry I know that sounds cheesy but it’s true) Oh, and Jai and Zare live our dream and drive a walker. That too.
Of course, we have to talk about Out Of Darkness. This is the episode where we really got to sit down and learn some more about our rebel girls… including a third girl we would have yet to meet, “Fulcrum” 🙂 Getting to see Hera and Sabine bond over fighting Fyrnocks is quite the adventure, and we’re quite glad they made it out alive. And just getting these tiny hints in the direction as to the larger mission at hand is really cool, both in the moment and looking back. Fulcrum — er, Ahsoka — I’m sorry I ever might’ve given you a smidgen of doubt. And I’m sure Sabine’s thinking that a bit now. Though it will be interesting to see if Sabine and Ahsoka ever butt heads over something in the business of rebelling. It’s really amazing seeing how Hera handles this, how she’s able to encourage Sabine to have faith even when she can’t give her all the answers. It is so much legit truth, and it comes to mind every now and then when I’m asking questions that I can’t have answered. Getting to know more of their stories is one of the things that makes this episode so awesome. And it’s really hard to encapsulate all of that in this one paragraph, so go and read the Transmission on the episode for more (and ignore all my ramblings from back before I ever wondered if Fulcrum was Ahsoka). Like say, when you look at how everything comes together at the end… it is all kinds of epic.

This is Star Wars Fan Blogger Twilight, and I bring you more positive discussion and fangirly craziness the haters don’t want you to hear. And you’re reading Rebel Transmissions. Ahh sorry couldn’t resist! Felt appropriate to open up today’s post on Vision Of Hope. And don’t worry, I can promise you that I’m for real 🙂 Whoaa uh that might’ve been a spoiler! If you haven’t seen the episode yet go watch and now and forget you read that last line! Le apologies. Anyway, let’s get to it!NOTE: Contains spoilers from Episode I, Episode III, Episode V, Episode VI, the Clone Wars Microseries, Menace Of The Sith, TCW episode The Wrong Jedi, and Rebels episodes Spark Of Rebellion, Rise Of The Old Masters, Breaking Ranks, Path Of The Jedi, and Vision Of Hope.

It started out an ordinary day for our crew. Ezra was getting to do some lightsaber training today, with Zeb, Chopper, and Sabine providing some firepower for him to practice deflecting. Kanan encourages Ezra to work harder on aiming the blasterfire at the target, but it’s not too easy. Deflecting blasterfire and stuff is something the Jedi do all the time, and they make it look so easy, so I guess it had never occurred to me that it might be a tricky thing to learn how to do. Ezra definitely shows us what Jedi training is like from a layman’s perspective, which is nice for those of us who like to dream and pretend we’re Jedi ourselves. But Ezra is confident he’ll nail that target; “‘Yet’, the key word is ‘yet'” 🙂 Man I wish I had that kind of confidence in my abilities some days. Kanan just facepalms XD
Stopping the practice, he asks Ezra what his rush is. And it happens to be that Young Bridger is excited to hear from everyone’s favorite rebel senator, Gall Trayvis, and he just knows that he’ll be on today. But Kanan simply reminds him to keep his focus in the here and now where it belongs. I could just hear Ezra say “Y’know, that guide I met in the temple told me to be mindful of the future…” and then Master Jarrus would throw out “Yeah but not at the expense of the moment. Especially when you’re being shot at.” hehe somebody stop me! Anyway, returning to training, amidst the fire coming from all ends, Ezra starts hearing voices… and it goes from there and becomes a full-fledged vision. In the snippets, we get the idea that our Rebels’ day won’t stay ordinary, and it appears to involve a whole lot of running from Imperials, and apparently… Gall Trayvis on the run with them? And if Ezra needed any other reason to be majorly intrigued by what he saw, he catches the Senator saying “…your parents were very brave”! When he comes to, forget that he creamed the target in his trance, he’s got some major news regarding his favorite personality… and the mystery surrounding his folks. Kanan doesn’t really seem to buy into this vision as truth. And understandably… we know that these visions Jedi get have a tendency to be half-wrong a good bit (See: Luke, whose was kinda off, and Anakin, whose was only made true when he freaked out over it). Not to mention the whole idea of the gang running around with everyone’s hero, who just so happens to have known Ezra’s parents, must sound a bit like wishful thinking to the others. But Ezra isn’t about to deny what he saw, and the potential of what it could mean for him. And just then, right on cue, Hera lets the gang know that Senator Trayvis is on the holonet. Don’t think I’ve ever seen Ezra so excited as he dashed into the Ghost, knocking into Zeb in his hurry. Sorry but that subtle gag made me laugh for like five minutes straight XD
It’s definitely interesting seeing just what a big deal Gall Trayvis is to these guys. I mean, these guys gather around the holonet like a family watching The Wonderful World Of Disney! It’s of course not the first time we’ve seen Trayvis on-air, but it’s the first time we’ve sort of gotten a glimpse of the enthusiasm our rebels share for this guy, in particular for Hera and Ezra. As Trayvis eloquently roots on the rebels, he seems to have slipped in a subtle message for the Ghost crew. It looks like the Senator wants to meet the crew! Hera and Ezra deduce it to be at the old senate building at sunset today. Kanan and Zeb are a bit skeptical, but the captain and padawan have an answer for every question they have. But taking into account that the Empire could still be up to something, Hera sends Ezra out to meet up with his friend on the inside to find out if there’s any funny business going on. Before heading out, Kanan tries to talk to Ezra and help him understand to not be too quick to trust his vision to the letter. But Ezra feels beyond a shadow of a doubt that what he saw is true. It’s got to be difficult to be told to trust your feelings, and then have those feelings be called into question. Like say, Ezra’s in an interesting situation, as he’s being raised in the Jedi ways at fifteen, giving him a definite layman’s approach to the Force. And this can be both a good thing and a bad thing. But for now, Ezra goes off to meet up with his friend — the awesome Zare Leonis!
Yeah needless to say I was thrilled to see Zare again. And quite thrilled to know he’s still alive. Seriously I need to read those books!! Uh anyway, so Ezra meets up with Cadet Leonis in a backalley. And Zare’s happy to bring some news, especially now that he’s been recently promoted and can access even more dirt on the Empire that’d be useful to “Dev” and his comrades. Zare relays that a good bunch of the Imperials are planning something at the old senate building, and that’s not good. Ezra believes now that Gall Trayvis might be walking into a trap. Before parting, Zare lets him know that he’s being transferred off-world, so it might be a while before they see each other again. Ezra, in turn was just about to give Zare his real name, but then along come some Stormtroopers and that conversation ended. But it makes you wonder, doesn’t it? I mean, the fact that Ezra didn’t get to tell him… makes me wonder if Zare might be further connected to Ezra’s path than we know. Maybe their families were friends? It may not’ve meant anything, but I can’t help but wonder. But suddenly it hits Ezra… he’s surrounded by ‘troopers at all ends in a backalley… and it looks awfully familiar… because he saw it in his vision. But all familiarity aside, Young Bridger’s forced to make a run for it. The ‘troopers give chase for a bit before Ezra’s agility and blaster-saber aid in his escape.
In that very senate building sits Agent Kallus, intently studying over his plans. Imperial Senator Maketh, as usual, is pretty skeptical of whatever he’s got up his sleeve. But Kallus is looking awfully smug about this one… he’s tired of The Quiz’s focus on just the Jedi, so he’s aiming to nab the whole Rebel gang — Jedi and all. To quote a great Mon Calamari admiral, “IT’S A TRAP!”.
Ezra finally returns to their rendevouz point at the Bridger household, only to find just about everyone downstairs talking about how awesome his parents were. Understood as they are awesome, but wow much awkward for Ezra here. Once that awkwardness clears out, Ezra tells the crew about the Empire’s plans, so it looks like our little gang’s got a rescue mission to attend to.
So there the crew was, crouching on the outskirts of the senate building, surveying for any sign of Trayvis or Imperials. Sabine spots the ship the senator must’ve come in, and Kanan spots the ‘troopers stalking around down below. Now before our heroes go rushing off to save Trayvis, Hera does query as to why the Empire hasn’t gone after the senator yet. Kanan rolls that off as being a trap for the crew, which considering the thing we saw with Kallus, it makes complete sense. Yet, looking back, Hera’s quandry makes a lot of sense, unfortunately. But I’ll save all my kicking myself over not having seen it coming for later, for now, our rebels are putting together a plan, and Ezra decides the next step of said plan is going to involve a little shortcut… to the Lothal sewer systems. Oh joy.
After Chopper has a brief “discussion” with an Imperial ‘mech guarding the sewers, the rest of the crew moves in. As you might expect, not everyone is a fan of this plan. But Ezra knows his way around, and quite frankly the smell beats stormtrooper trouble any day. But hey, the Rebs got off easy… at least the sewers weren’t full and they didn’t have to swim in it like Obi-Wan and Anakin once did! And ermagosh this moment… “It does smell like you…” “Wait. You know what I smell like?” 😆 😆 But their trip underground doesn’t last long, ’cause soon our heroes find themselves back on the move on the senate building premises. With Zeb and Sabine up a level and Kanan, Hera, and Ezra going inside, what could go wrong? Anddddd I jinxed it. Kinda. OK not really but you know how this ends…
So the threesome find Senator Trayvis pretty quickly. Just sittin’ with his droids up front like nothing’s weird. Hera and Ezra warn him of the danger he’s in and he’s all like “Whoa whut??”. Yeah I hate that I didn’t see all this coming to begin with, but Gall’s a pretty amazing actor and I totally bought everything he said. And to think I was genuinely worried about him, the punk! (Sorry that last part was uncalled for. Forgive me.) But on cue come the ‘troopers and their little Agent too, making quick work of Trayvis’ protocol droids. And with all their numbers, it’s uncertain whether Kanan’s blade, Ezra’s blaster-blade, and Hera’s blaster can save the senator… and their own lives. Kallus gives some friendly “hellos” to the crew (fondly throwing out Ezra’s self-titled nickname “Jabba” hehe), and then asks his soldiers if they could help “encourage” the gang into conversing with him. Trayvis is like “Yeah let’s go with that plan I like that plan!” and again, I mentally kick myself for not picking up on his true allegiance. Sounds a lot like Palpatine in Lego’s Menace Of The Sith… “Surrender, we will not!” “Excuse me, but did you say ‘surrender, we will now’? Because I think that’s a marvelous idea! …Just my two cents…”. Here I was just thinking Trayvis was a petrified little ex-Republic senator who was in over his head and didn’t want to cause trouble! Anyway, thankfully the threesome has some friends in high places, and by that I mean Zeb and Sabine, wielding a few tiny “miracles” 🙂 And then they do their awesome thing as Zeb goes all Lasat on them and Sabine goes all… um, Mando I guess, on them. And that gives our heroes a chance to make a run for it. But there’s always some hitch in the plans, and that miiiight include the fact that the senator’s ship is long gone and instead stands an Imperial shuttle. Y’know maybe that should’ve tipped ’em off? The fact that his ship is missing but there’s no evidence it was blown up seems to garner some questions. Questions I should’ve been asking myself! But sue me I was eating dinner when I was watching this for the first time so my mind was a quarter-focused on my chicken tenders and macaroni so I guess I couldn’t get myself to think much further on it. Oh, and speaking of hitches, Kallus isn’t the kind of guy gotten rid of so easily. Andddd it’s back to making a run for it!
The crew finally comes back to the sewer pipe where they left off and Trayvis is all “Um. Ew. We’re actually going in there?“. Well, if nothing good came out of this, at least Trayvis got forced out of his comfort zone a bit (and likely forced to take a shower later). The guy may be a good actor, but his distaste for sewer travel is all real XD Another interesting note: sooo Kallus tried to shoot ’em one last time before the pipe was closed up and then he barked orders to his ‘troopers to go and get them at the next interval. My question is… if he knew Trayvis was a turncoat (which he clearly did), why was he still a bit antsy to nab the Rebs? I guess he knows they have a habit of getting out of sticky situations and won’t allow for anything to go wrong. You know I just realized this was a dumb question so let’s just drop it and move on.
As the gang dashed through the sewer, it seems that Gall can’t quite keep up. I didn’t think about this at first because well, he’s not exactly… young. And plus, I don’t do well with running either, so I could feel his pain. And then his claim that the running plus the less-than-pleasant-smelling environment made it more difficult sounded legit enough. But somehow Hera’s look of suspicion didn’t hit me once. This coming from the same girl who, back in TCW, figured it out that Barriss was the traitor early on. I’m kinda ashamed of myself. Now all of Trayvis’ ramblings sound so fishy they come canned with Starkist on the label. ‘Cause boy that guy can run when he wants to, when the Stormtroopers finally catch up! Kanan sends Hera and Ezra off to get Trayvis to shelter. “How will you find us?” “I can smell you, remember?” and Ezra’s about to throw something out there, but there’s no time for flirty witticisms! Though I would like to throw out one possibility: “Well, what an incredible smell you’ve discovered!” 😀 Ohh I kinda hope that wasn’t what he was thinking though… XD
Think Chopper got the easy part of the mission? Ah no. A couple of ‘troopers came by and sealed the hatch shut and warned their assumptively Imperial droid of the Rebels. Sooo now Chop’s got to go and get the stupid thing un-sealed now! Yup things are just going swimmingly today aren’t they?
So while Hera and Ezra and Trayvis were navigating the tunnels, I get another reason to really should’ve been suspicious of the senator. He sorta casually seems to ask who might be funding or allies to their little gang. Thankfully the answer is no, they have neither, but oh my gosh, what a sneak! And I’m sorry I’m dishing out this much smacktalk on the guy but he is really grinding my gears right now, especially as I look back and see his plan from the get-go. So please forgive me if you’re still a Gall Trayvis fan and I offended you; I hold no real hate for him but he’s definitely not on my good side right now. Ezra comments on what an inspiration the senator’s transmissions have been, and Hera, though slightly less certain of the guy, does remark that it’s nice to know “…we’re not the only ones out there”. The three come to a stop in front of this giant fan blade. And while Ezra checks to see if he can shut down the fan’s power, Hera slips Gall a blaster to “watch their backs”. And again, I don’t know how I didn’t see it coming. Though I can admit I was a bit uneasy here… but I just didn’t want to think for a second that he might not be the real deal! Right now I’m just super-impressed Hera already knew she’d have to slip him an unloaded gun. But man… when he just goes and pulls that blaster on them… it’s just unreal. Yet it totally makes sense in retrospect. And I’ll be honest, I thought the whole Luminara thing from back on Rise Of The Old Masters was a total accident! But how would you react if your hero suddenly turned on you and revealed himself not to be who you thought he was? Well, despite Hera was on to him before Ezra was, she is no less disappointed in him. Ezra can’t fathom this whatsoever, I mean, it’d be like Walt Disney himself revealing himself to be an Imperial officer! (That was not a shot at Disney owning Lucasfilm I promise you it’s a callback to that reference I made earlier) And ughhh I couldn’t not hurt for Ezra when Trayvis brings up his parents… 😥 Of course he was commenting on their bravery in a villainous derogatory manner… just to drop the bomb that they’re… evidently dead. A part of me still hopes it’s not true, but until proven otherwise I can’t say much for now. Man oh man there were tears on my part. But good for Hera, as the senator’s blaster isn’t loaded… and she has no problem punching an “elderly gentleman”. So yeah the rest of the crew’s not too thrilled either, but they’ve got bigger problems as they still have ‘troopers on their tail and a giant fan right in front of them. Kanan uses the Force to stop it while the others stand guard and fire back at the baddies. And just as the Specters left, Ezra shot this look of ultimate disappointment at Trayvis. But Trayvis… kinda looks… well, he doesn’t look at him with an “aw man they got away again!” look, it almost looks… somewhat uncertain, maybe a little apologetic. Maybe I’m just looking into this too deeply, but one has to wonder if perhaps Gall Trayvis is not too far gone. Especially after Kallus shoots him this even more disappointed look. As frustrating as his betrayal is… I can’t pretend that there might not still be some good in him. Hey, if Vader can be redeemed, anyone can, right? But where his story goes next, I do not know…
And so Chopper was just about to carve the hatch open for the Rebels when suddenly Kanan lightsabers the rest of their way out. Ever have one of those days you just can’t win? This little C1-10P has.
The crew is solemn upon returning to the Ghost. But not all is lost. Hera and Ezra have an awesome moment as she makes a point that, despite our feelings can make things confusing sometimes, and not everything goes according to the way we’d like it to, it is never wrong to hope. And something I thought about in regards to this: whether in backtalking Trayvis or just talking to the rest of the crew, Hera and Ezra both point back to the Bridgers and what a difference they made. Fact is, his parents were the true embodiment of hope. You don’t need to be some fancy celebrity rebel superhero, you just need to be brave, have hope, and be willing to fight for the right thing. And that’s what the Ghost crew will continue to do 🙂
So wow so much feels! So much intrigue! So much to think about it took me two days and became the first late Rebel Transmission ever! Ah well it was time worth spent. Until next time around…